Arms Deal Report Must Be Made Public : Cosatu [Sapa, 2008-03-18]

Publication: Sapa Issued: Johannesburg Date: 2008-03-18 Reporter: Sapa

Arms Deal Report Must Be Made Public : Cosatu

Publication	Sapa BC-COSATU-ARMS
Issued	Johannesburg
Reporter	Sapa
Date	2008-03-18

The Congress of SA Trade Unions on Tuesday raised concerns that the arms deal report by the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC), would not be made public.

Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said that due to public interest in the arms deal saga, it should be dealt with in an open and transparent manner.

Cosatu was "concerned that the report will only be for the internal consumption of members of the NEC," as its purpose was to inform the new ANC leadership about the arms deal.

Craven said Cosatu still wanted a full and impartial investigation into the arms deal.

On Monday, ANC general secretary Gwede Mantashe said the report would be available to the ANC leadership at the next NEC meeting in May.

Mantashe said the report aimed to ensure new party leadership did not have to depend on "anecdotal information" on the arms deal, but was properly informed.

With acknowledgements to Sapa.

First sensible thing Cosatu has said for a long while.

Not that the publicly-released version of an ANC Arms Deal Report is likely to have much value.